This week the fighting has started along the entire front line of Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well as in the Kharkiv region. That was an unsuccessful attempt of russians to test the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strength, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksiy Danilov on the air of "Radio NV".
"As of today, they are going to carry on with these attempts. When the so-called big assault starts is only a matter of time. I would like to mention that when someone says "the last crucial battle" – I wouldn't be so optimistic. There might be so many different things lying ahead. This is one of the battles that have been taking place in our country since 2014," – he said.
Danilov added that russia could still be moving some new troops to Ukraine in two to four weeks, but stressed that we had no right to belittle the enemy's strength: "big country, a lot of people, intelligence – not that much".
"They are still present there. We've noticed recently that Libyans and Syrians, so-called mercenaries started showing up. Today it's quite difficult to predict when they will run out of them. That there's some tension on the matter in the russian federation is a known fact already," – he mentioned.
Speaking about the mercenaries, Danilov added that their exact number is unclear but the UAF had already destroyed around 30 people. In the NSDC Secretary's opinion, rf can't send more than 500 mercenaries to Ukraine.
According to the UAF's General Staff fresh reports, in the Donetsk and Tavriya direction, the enemy keeps carrying out artillery shelling along the entire contact line.
In the Kherson region, the invaders are planning to organize forceful mobilization of the locals for the war against Ukraine. At the same time, the occupiers set the goal to terminate the humanitarian support of the region from the Ukrainian authorities' side. The terror against the civilians continues.